Candle holder



E. BUCHMAN CANDLE HOLDER Sept. 3, 1940.

Filed March 20, 1939 Patented Sept. 3, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICECANDLE HOLDER Emil Buchman, Springfield, Mass.

Application March 20, 1939, Serial No. 262,950

4 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in candle holders and is directedmore particularly to the provision of a novel candle holder having meanswhereby the candle is snuffed or put out -5 at the proper time.

It is one of the principal objects of the invention to provide a candleholder which is particularly adapted-for use in connection withreligious ceremonies, as in a Jewish or Catholic home, where it iscustomary to burn one or more candles at certain times and to leave themburning for a long period with the attendant danger of both fire andobjectionable fumes. By means of my candle holder I overcome theseobjections but at the same time I do not in any way interfere with theproper and desired use of the candles but, in fact, facilitate it.

It is the practice with those of the Jewish faith, for example, to burnseveral candles in the home on a certain night of the week and it is adoctrine of that faith that the candle must not be blown out or snuffedout by any manual means but that its flame be allowed to die out of itsown accord. 1

The device of this invention includes mechanical 25 means adapted toaccomplish this purpose in such a way that the religious doctrine statedis adhered to yet the danger of fire or noxious odors from a smoulderingmass of wax is eliminated. In general, the device of the invention isadapted to be removably associated with a candle-stick of ordinary forminto the socket of which, as is well known, it is now common to insertthe lower end of a candle so that the same is supported while it burns.Not only will my device support a candle in the desired manner but it isso constructed that when the candle has been burned to a predeterminedlength it is automatically snuffed out without any manual touching orwithout any act on the part of a human.

I thus overcome both the hazard of fire and the objection of smoulderingfumes, both of which are now very great. That is to say, I make itimpossible for the candle to tip over or to burn to a dangerous lengthand at the same time I 45 prevent the candles smouldering and therebyemitting unpleasant odors as is now the situation.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a device adapted to beassociated with or dis posed in a candle holder or stock of usualconstruction and which device yieldingly and releasably engages the saidcandle holder or stick in such a way that the appearance of the holderor stock is not undesirably affected. As will appear, the constructionof the invention is simple and contains but few parts so as to beinexpensive to manufacture while at the same time it is capable of beingmanipulated with facility and is operation is positive and safe.

Various other novel features and advantages of the invention will behereinafter more fully referred to in connection with the accompanyingdescription of the invention, in the present preferred form thereof,reference being had to the accompanying drawing wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of the device of the invention withdot-dash lines to indicate a lighted candle and a conventional candleholder;

Fig. 2 is a similar view but showing the device of the invention how itlooks after it has accomplished its intended snuifing function;

Fig. 3 is a front elevational view of the device of the invention; and

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view thereof.

Referring now to the drawing more in detail, the invention will be fullydescribed.

What I call a body or support member is indicated at 2 and this mayconsist of a horizontal tray-like part as shown. Associated with thebody 2 are a pair of spaced upwardly-extending parts 4.

The upper portions, at least, of these members 4 are preferably more orless triangular shaped'as shown in Fig. 1. According to the preferredform of the construction, the spaced parts 4 are connected at theirlower ends by a transverse part 6 and are formed from a strip of sheetmetal bent into the form of a U as shown in Fig. 3, said transverseportion 6 being secured in some suitable way to base 2.

Extending between said upright parts 4 is a shaft 8 which preferably hasits opposite end portions extending through and beyond the outsides ofthe members 4. Pivoted to said shaft are a pair ofrelatively movablemembers which are preferably formed of strip metal bent to have mainbody parts l and side parts l2. y

The movable members are so formed and arranged that the said. projectingparts of the shaft 8 extend through the parts l2 and the body parts aremovable towards and away from the side marginal edges of the uprights.That is to say, the movable members are adapted to swing between theopen position shown in Fig. 1 and the closed position shown in Fig. 2.

In an open position of the movable members, the lower end of a candle Cmay be received between the uprights 4 and between the parts l0.Preferably the parts 10 have cut-out portions, as

shown, and their upper end parts are bent inwardly towards one anotheras indicated at I4.

Spring means is provided to urge the pivoted members towards closedposition. Preferably this takes the form of a coil spring i6 disposedaround shaft 8 and having opposite end portions l8 bearing yieldinglyagainst the inside faces of the lower portions of members 18.

Such means, then, causes the pivoted members to be urged towards oneanother so that the candle C is tightly gripped. It will be noted inFig. 1 that the candle has not yet burned to a length which permits thelips M to come into contact.

In Fig. 2, however, the candle has burned down to such a length that thelips M are no longer held apart but have been allowed, and even urged bythe spring, to come into engagement and thereby snuff theupwardly-extending wick. It will thus be seen that as long as the candleis long enough so that there is no danger of fire or objectionablefumes, it is safely supported by my device but as soon as it has burnedto a dangerously short length, it is promptly and positively snuffedout.

It may be desirable in operation of the device to allow the lowerextremity of the candle to rest on the spring-surrounded shaft 8.

As stated above, it is a further feature of the device of this inventionthat it is adapted to be associated with a candlestick S of anyconventional form having a socket in its upper side. To this end, Iprovide on the lower side of base 2 a split tubular member of bendablemetal adapted to extend into the candle holders socket.

The tubular member may be variously formed but a satisfactoryconstruction is one consisting of a single strip of material cut andbent to have a central horizontal portion 20, a pair of curved parts 22extending downwardly from opposite ends of part Ell, and another pair ofparts 24 extending downwardly from part 20 within the parts 22 which arecurved towards one another, as shown.

The material of which the tubular member is made being spring-like andthe parts 22 being so arranged that their marginal edges are normallyspaced from one another, said parts 22 may be yieldingly urged towardson another in order to facilitate insertion of the device. Onceinserted, the parts 24 cause the parts 22 to spring outwardly so as toyieldingly engage the sides of the sticks socket.

It will be appreciated that the device is simple in form and its partsmay be made easily of pieces of strip metal. In the form shown, a rivetor screw, indicated by 26, extends through part 28 of the tubularmember, base 2, and the transverse portion 6 so as to secure the partstogether but obviously they could be otherwise secured, as by welding.

While I have described the invention in great detail and with respect tothe present preferred form thereof, it is not desired to be limitedthereto since changes and modifications may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. The invention maybe embodied in other specific forms without departing from the essentialcharacteristics thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to beconsidered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, thescope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims ratherthan by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within themeaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended tobe embraced therein.

What it is desired to claim and secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. As a new article of manufacture, a candleholding device comprising incombination, a horizontal tray-like support, a pair of plate membersextending upwardly therefrom in spaced parallelism, the side edges ofthe upper end portion of each of said plate members converging upwardlytowards one another, a shaft extending between said plate members, apair of U-shaped members each including a central body portion andintegral side portions, said body portions being disposed in planeswhich are at right angles to the planes of said plate members oneadjacent the forward edges of said plate members and the other adjacentthe rear edges thereof, said side portions being pivoted on said shaftwhereby the U-shaped members may swing relative to the plate membersbetween open and closed positions, and spring means urging said U-shapedmembers towards closed position, said body portions being arranged to beinsubstantial vertical parallelism when the U-shaped members are in openposition and to incline towards one another in planes substantiallyparallel to said converging side edges of the plate members with theirupper ends in engagement when the U-shaped members are in closedposition.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a candleholding device comprising incombination, a horizontal tray-like support, a pair of plate membersextending upwardly therefrom in spaced parallelism, the side edges ofthe upper end portion of each of said plate members converging upwardlytowards one another, a shaft extending between said plate members, apair of U-shaped members each including a central body portion andintegral side portions, said body portions being disposed in planeswhich are at right angles to the planes of said plate members oneadjacent the forward edges of said plate members and the other adjacentthe rear edges thereof, said side portions being pivoted on said shaftwhereby the U-shaped members may swing relative to the plate membersbetween open and closed positions, and spring means urging said U-shapedmembers towards closed position, said U-shaped members being formed ofmetal and said body portions thereof having inwardly-extending lips ontheir upper sides, said body portions being arranged to be insubstantial vertical parallelism when the U-shaped members are in openposition and to incline towards one another in planes substantiallyparallel with said converging side edges of the plate members with saidlips in engagement when the U-shaped members are in closed position.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a candle holding device comprisingin combination, a horizontal tray-like support, a pair of plate membersextending upwardly therefrom in spaced parallelism, the side edges ofthe upper end portion of each of said plate members converging upwardlytowards one another, a shaft extending between said plate members, apair of movable members, each of said movable members including acentral body portion and integral side portions which extend in the samedirection and at right angles to said body portion from opposite sidesthereof, said body portions of the movable members being disposed inplanes which are at right angles to the planes of said plate members oneadjacent the forward edges of said plate members and the other adjacentthe rear edges thereof, said side portions of the movable members beingpivoted on said shaft whereby the movable members may swing relative tothe plate members between open position and closed positions, and a coilspring around said shaft having opposite free end portions bearingagainst the inner sides of the lower parts of said movable membersurging the same towards closed position, said body portions beingarranged to be in substantial vertical parallelism when the U- shapedmembers are in open position and to incline towards one another inplanes substantially parallel to said converging side edges of the platemembers with their upper ends in engagement when the U-shaped membersare in closed position. I

4. As a new article of manufacture, a candleholding device comprising incombination, a horizontal tray-like support, a pair of plate membersextending upwardly therefrom in spaced parallelism, the side edges ofthe upper end portion of each of said plate members converging upwardlytowards one another, a shaft extending between said plate members, apair of U-shaped members each including a central body portion andintegral side portions, said body portions being disposed in planeswhich are at right angles to the planes of said plate members oneadjacent the forward edges of said plate members and the other adjacentthe rear edges thereof, said side portions being pivoted on said shaftwhereby the U-shaped members may swing relative to the plate membersbetween open and closed positions, and spring means urging said U-shapedmembers towards closed position, said body portions being arranged to bein substantial vertical parallelism when the U-shaped members are inopen position and to incline towards one another in planes substantiallyparallel to said converging side edges of the plate members with theirupper ends in engagement when the U-shaped members are in closedposition, and a split tubular member of bendable metal extendingdownwardly from the lower side of said support for insertion in thesocket of a candlestick holder.

EMIL BUCHMAN.

